the good of the world than that the public friendships were as well established where we would place them. You will have it from better hands that the project you mention is not approved of
more practicable, it is possible that, backed by the interest of Halifax, he might have regained his place in the King's favour. Upon this occasion, the Duke of York was not consulted, and made open show of his displeasure. Halifax told Sir J. Reresby that the Duke would never forgive him. It is even said that, immediately before the death of Charles, there was a scheme in agitation under the management of Halifax for recalling Monmouth, sending York to Scotland, calling a parliament, and changing the violent measures of the last two years. If so, it was prevented by the King's death, and Halifax was left exposed to the resentment of his successor. For some time, James, in consideration of his great services during the dependence of the Bill of Exclusion, treated him with seeming confidence; but, finding him unwilling to go to the lengths he proposed in religious matters, and particularly in the proposed repeal of the Test Acts, he was totally disgraced. After this period, the Marquis of Halifax was engaged with those lords who invited the Prince of Orange over, and joined so cordially in the revolution that he was made Keeper of the Seals by King William. He died in April, 1695."
"Amidst the various political changes of this thoroughpaced statesman, it ought not to be forgotten that, though he sided with the Court during the last years of King Charles, his counsels were a salutary check upon the arbitrary measures urged by the Duke of York, and that he probably merited the praise which Dryden elsewhere bestows upon him, of preventing a civil war, and extinguishing a growing fire which was just ready to break forth."—Sir W. Scott's Somers' Tracts, viii. 222.—Dryden's Works, ix. 305.
